Ad hoc piconets have recently been developed to provide short range wireless networks for connecting wireless devices and services. As used herein, an ad hoc piconet is a network of wireless devices that exists only when the wireless devices are in close physical proximity to one another. One well known example of an ad hoc piconet is the Bluetooth architecture, which is a low cost, short range wireless specification for connecting mobile devices and services. The Bluetooth architecture is service-oriented, with service metadata being published via the Bluetooth Service Discovery Protocol (BSDP). However, it is well known that the short-range characteristics of Bluetooth wireless communication generally imposes proximity limitations on wireless devices operating within a single piconet.
It is also known to provide interconnectivity of multiple piconets, to provide a scatternet. However, in order to form a scatternet, the piconets generally need to be colocated, with at least one device participating in more than one of the interconnected piconets. Therefore, scatternets still may also be limited by proximity.
Bluetooth devices, including mobile phones, home entertainment systems, MP3 players, automobiles and notebook computers, may provide services to one another within a Bluetooth piconet or scatternet. However, with the increasing use of Bluetooth devices, it may be desirable to provide additional services to and from these devices.